ABSTRACT
This chapter describes to what extent the care delivered in general practices is in agreement with clinical guidelines. Since 1989, the Dutch College of General Practitioners has developed clinical guidelines for general practitioners (GPs). The Dutch College of General Practitioners developed 70 partly evidence-based and partly consensus-based guidelines. Furthermore, the data from a national health information network for general practices were explored in order to get information on the number of indicators that could become available from routinely collected data. In the Netherlands, some 80% of all antibiotics are prescribed in general practice. The guidelines recommend restrictive prescribing of antibiotics, on account of preventing antibiotic resistance; and when antibiotics are needed, a first-choice drug is proposed. In the same general practices under-prescribing as well as over-prescribing can occur. Differences between general practices are small, and even smaller as the rate of adherence approaches 100%.
